Foreign companies keen on Smart Cities project: Venkaiah Naidu

Paris, Oct 8 : Companies from across the world have bid for the project to build Smart Cities in India, said Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu who added that the French want to take up three of the cities.

In an interview to Media India Group, Naidu, who was in France for a three-day visit, called for greater participation of the people in the government’s ambitious project of building 100 Smart Cities.

He expressed confidence that the project of building the Smart Cities would go ahead full steam as a lot of companies from across the globe have come forward to bid for the project.

“The French also want to take up three cities – Pondicherry, Nagpur and Chandigarh. You have similar interest from Germany, US, Singapore, Japan. So, I do not see any hurdle. We have provided the seed capital in terms of Rs 5 billion for each city and then it is upto the municipal administration and the private sector companies to raise the finances for the rest,” he said.

Naidu said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to get the common people of India involved in all the initiatives of the new government, be it Digital India, Swachch Bharat or even the Smart Cities.

“The prime minister has clearly stated that these are not the initiatives that have been carved out in some government offices and which can be implemented only by the government officials. In all of these, we need the participation of the people and we are seeing a lot of proactive involvement.

“For instance, in the Clean India campaign, we have sports personalities, cinema stars and other leaders joining in. Similarly, for Smart Cities, we need to involve people as Smart Cities must have Smart people, not just buildings and other infrastructure,” he said.

On his visit to Bordeaux, where he attended a Global Intelligent Transportation Summit, along with ministers from 30 other countries, Naidu said that the conference and the accompanying exhibition have been a very good learning experience and that he would like to see the possibility of implementing some of the intelligent transport solutions in India.

“It is important for us to keep abreast with what the rest of the world is doing so we can implement the latest solutions which are best adapted for our country,” Naidu told the Media India Group.

In an impetus to 5G deployment, Samsung Electronics on Tuesday showcased here how its solutions can enable a variety of 5G-powered business models and scenarios for smart agriculture, home broadband services and smart cities in India.

According to South Korean major, smart agriculture will be a key focus area when 5G services are rolled out in India.

The 5G use cases for smart agriculture will revolve around sensors and devices on the farm that can provide information on soil moisture, nutrients, spoilage and other aspects of farming.

“Making the world a better place for humans is our focus. We want to make people’s life more efficient,” said Claudia Park, Director, Networks for Samsung Electronics.

She pointed out that with multiple use cases across various fields, 5G is the new frontier.

In collaboration with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Samsung announced last week that it will commence the first large-scale 5G trials in India in the first quarter of next year.

According to the company, “the government is very keen on 5G use cases around agriculture, considering that farming is one of the mainstays of the Indian economy”.

Since 2012, Samsung has been a key partner of the Indian telecommunications industry.

Samsung has been also selected by leading operators in The US such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint for a 5G roll-out while it will commence 5G in Korea starting December.

In India, the company is a key provider of network infrastructure for Reliance Jio which has successfully built a large mobile network within a short period of time.

The Jio-Samsung 4G LTE network handles over 90 petabytes of data traffic every day, equivalent to 600 billion photographs shared on social media in a day.

Since 2012, Samsung has been a key partner of the Indian telecommunications industry.

According to Samsung, the company will deliver its 4G LTE solutions to 99 per cent of the Indian population by Diwali in partnership with Reliance Jio.

Encouraged by its achievements in 4G, Samsung will continue to support India to accelerate its digital transformation and preparations as its 5G future unfolds.

Samsung has already been a pioneer in developing 5G solutions.

With its successful development of the first commercial ASIC-based 5G modems and mmWave RFICs, the company has been manufacturing compact-sized 5G radio and router devices and CPEs (customers premises equipments). (IANS)